Stanislaus County is now one of coronavirus ‘hot spots’ in California, officials say
Stanislaus County’s top officials have come to the conclusion the county is one of the hot spots for coronavirus infections in California.
If the trend is not turned around, it could lead to closure of businesses and activities that recently reopened, the county’s leading health official said.
Tuesday, the county’s all-Republican Board of Supervisors heard the latest update on the surge of cases and hospitalizations that’s occurred since the county began a reopening process May 20.
Stanislaus is one of 11 counties being closely monitored by the California Department of Public Health as they struggle with a surge in cases.
The county now leads the other jurisdictions with a 28.2 percent increase in hospitalizations over three days. San Joaquin County, its neighbor to the north, is second with a 27.3 percent increase.
In addition, Stanislaus has a seven-day 10.1 percent positive test rate, second only to Imperial County. The state wants counties to keep the positive test rate below 8 percent.
The county has added almost 400 new cases of coronavirus in the past seven days, bringing the total count to 1,639 and 37 deaths.
As many as 77 COVID-positive patients were in the county’s five hospitals this week, said Dr. Julie Vaishampayan, the county’s chief health officer.
Before the reopening process, the hospitals were easily managing less than 20 COVID-19 patients.
“We have been working hard to understand what (the increase) means and where it comes from and what policies are needed,” said Jody Hayes, county chief executive officer.
The hospitals still have around 550 beds available and capacity for 70 additional patients in intensive care units. With exponential growth in infections, Vaishampayan said, the danger is that hospitalizations could double to 150 in a week and then double again in another week, over-stressing the health care system.
The health officer said three-quarters of patients in the hospitals are county residents. Some are from neighboring counties. She said patients of all ages, not just the elderly, have required hospitalization. The COVID-19 respiratory illness is characterized by high fevers and difficulty breathing if the infection gets into the lungs.
Almost 90 percent of people who have died were 65 or older, while 11 percent were in the 50 to 64 age range.
County leaders are fearing a state action will shut down sectors in an attempt to keep the outbreak in check.
Vaishampayan said the sectors that were most recently opened this month, on a statewide basis and in counties with approved variances, are most in danger of having to close again. Those sectors include gaming establishments, hotels, campgrounds, bars, wineries, fitness centers and museums.
No special effort to contain the outbreak was rolled out Tuesday. The county will keep trying to promote face coverings, social distancing and use of contact tracing to reduce the spread of infections.
Supervisor Terry Withrow said there’s a distrust of county government in Latino and underserved neighborhoods in west Modesto, which has a large concentration of cases. That has affected contact tracing and educational outreach to promote face coverings and social distancing.
Hayes said the chief executive office has assigned a staff member to reach out to organizations with ties to that community in hopes of reducing infections.
Supervisor Vito Chiesa wanted to know if contact numbers would be provided for scheduling mobile testing of employees on ranches and other rural sites.
County public health plans to have a mobile testing unit in operation within two weeks.
This story was originally published June 23, 2020 at 2:15 PM.
